ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been increasing evidence to suggest that Piaget’s proposals are inaccurate and inappropriate for decision making in the classroom. As the next extract by Tamburrini indicates, Piaget’s description, especially of the young child, tends to be one of incompetence, what the child is presently unable to do. This clearly creates considerable difficulties for those working with young children who prefer to emphasize success in learning, starting with what children can do and understand. Tamburrini demonstrates that given the right kind of conditions, young children can demonstrate competence considerably in excess of those that Piaget’s proposals would lead us to expect. Central to this are factors such as the language in which activities are explained, the appropriateness of the task to the child and his or her present stage of understanding, familiarity with the materials used, the context in which situations are explored and children’s expectations of the participants in the situation.
